Lobbyists help Resolution Copper mine support
by Jerry Kammer on Jul. 17, 2008, under Edge, Local, Nation/World, SpecialWASHINGTON – The Resolution Copper Mining Co. has received good reviews for its alliance-building efforts with local communities and state agencies as it prepares to mine a massive copper find deep underground near Superior.
“They’ve been very active in the community, very open about having meetings about the project,” said Superior Mayor Michael Hing, whose grandfather emigrated here from China during the mining boom of the 1920s.
But the company, a joint venture of two international mining giants – London-based Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton of Australia – also knows how to play on the big political stage. It has hired two Phoenix-based lobbying firms to boost its efforts to not only win support in Arizona but also to persuade Congress to pass land exchange legislation essential to the project.
Phoenix-based lobbyist and public relations man Gordon C. James, who has close ties to the Bush administration, has been key to the effort. He is part of a growing breed who work on political campaigns, then lobby officials they help to elect.
He worked on both the 2000 and 2004 Bush presidential campaigns, mostly helping prepare and stage rallies and events. The Bush campaign paid James $59,000, while the Republican National Committee paid him $402,000 during the 2004 campaign.
James’ wife, Lisa, was the executive director in Arizona for the Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign.
“Gordon James is our link to the Bush administration,” said Resolution Copper president David Salisbury. “It’s important to have those connections.”
Last year, Resolution Copper paid $123,000 to the James firm, according to lobbying disclosure records.
The company’s lobbying campaign is trying to reverse delays caused by the alleged machinations of Rep. Rick Renzi, R-Ariz.
Renzi, whose district includes Superior, was indicted in February on charges he attempted to manipulate a land exchange to benefit a former business partner who owed him $700,000.
The indictment also accuses Renzi, who has denied wrongdoing and whose trial is set for March in Tucson, of offering to help Resolution Copper if it purchased property owned by the former partner, who is also under indictment.
But the company backed off and federal investigators moved in. Their probe cast a pall over the proposal to trade federal land at the copper mine site for other parcels assembled by the company. Congressional interest in the authorizing legislation cooled.
Last week, as a Senate panel held a hearing on land exchange legislation introduced by Sen. Jon Kyl – with backing from most of the state’s political leadership – the land exchange was back on track.
“With this land exchange we can preserve lands that advance the important public objectives of protecting wildlife habitat, cultural resources, the watershed and aesthetic values, while generating economic, recreation and employment opportunities for state and local residents, ” Kyl, an Arizona Republican, said at the hearing.
Like much of the state’s Republican leadership, Kyl also has ties to the James firm. Lisa James was director of coalitions in Kyl’s 2006 campaign for re-election.
At the Senate hearing, the Bush administration also gave the proposal a thumbs-up. Its support came via testimony from officials at the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management.
For help at the state level, Resolution Copper has paid about $220,000 since 2004 to Policy Development Group, another Phoenix-based lobbying firm.
Established by Ron Ober, a longtime aide to former Sen Dennis DeConcini, the firm is a fixture in Arizona politics.
Its Web site boasts that Ober “has served as a key adviser and strategist to several national, state and local elected and appointed government officials, including Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano.”
While Ober is a Democrat, his associates include former aides to three Republican powers: Sens. John McCain and Kyl and former Tucson Congressman Jim Kolbe.
But Ober said his firm’s greatest value to the Resolution Copper has been in developing links at the local, county and state level.
“They’re a new company in Arizona, not like Dial or SRP (Salt River Project),” said Ober, explaining the company’s need for home-grown eyes and ears.
Another member of the lobbying effort is an expert in land exchanges.
Colorado-based Andy Wiessner helps assemble land exchange packages and craft the legislative language.
Wiessner’s pedigree also has an Arizona connection. He was the counsel for the House Interior Subcommittee on Public Lands in the 1980s, when Arizona icon Morris Udall was chairman of the full House Interior Committee.
Lobbying records show that Resolution Copper has paid Wiessner $370,000 since 2005.
